Mike Sawyer’s Blog

First I have to apologize to my readers (all six of them) who subscribe to my blog “Dare to Ask” at topsawyer.com. I must retract this passage from my article published last August, “Whether or not he (Senator Grassley) was answering me directly his answer at the Mount Ayr town hall this week shows that the Senate Judiciary Committee is now willing to share with us the 10 hours of potentially damning testimony from Glenn Simpson, a reversal from just a month ago. Thank you Senator Grassley.”

In the New York Times Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch write “Republicans have refused to release full transcripts of our firm’s testimony, even as they selectively leak details to media outlets on the far right. It’s time to share what our company told investigators.” These Fusion GPS founders also said, “As we told the Senate Judiciary Committee in August, our sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump camp.”

We now know why? We now know that it was loose talk by Trump’s foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos and not the Steele dossier that triggered the Russia probe. We now know that Grassley’s committee was not just barking up the wrong tree but intentionally leading the American people up the wrong tree. Until Grassley releases the transcripts of these hearings, we simply have to take these two former “Wall Street Journal” reporters at their word. I speak for most Iowans when I say we don’t like to be lied to. From what is in front of us it would seem the Republican Party has come to view lying as a “team sport” and as Republican for five decades, this hurts. I can no longer root for the home team.

Now like so many Iowans I had no problem with an Iowa farmer as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee as long as he maintained his reputation as an honest man. But with what looks, feels and smells like obstruction of justice hanging around his neck, Grassley no longer has the credibility to carry out these duties.